Buckley Testimony

mary buckley

June 18, 2017

Deacon Duke Smith has given me 2 minutes to share with you my blessings and basis for my tithing.

God has truly blessed me. As I often reflect on my life, from poverty as share croppers in Mississippi to integrating an all-white school, graduating from universities, health challenges, a career, a world traveler, in every aspect God has been there and carried me through all the difficulties and there were many.

When I was 4 or 5 years old, my grandmother or mother would give each of my siblings and me 3 pennies, a nickel or a dime to put on the collection table. I wanted badly to take that nickel and buy an ice cream, but she’d told us it was for the church because it belonged to God. When it came time for church collections, our preacher would quote Malachi about robbing God. I didn’t understand that, because it was my money and since I didn’t see God, I didn’t know how I was robbing him.

When I asked my father why I had to give the church money, he’d say because the Bible tells us to, even though he never showed me where (in the Bible). But, I trusted my dad because he’d never told me anything other than the truth (except at Christmas about Santa Claus as I later learned). My father feared God and he wanted to be obedient to God’s word.

As Baptists, we believe the Bible is the only authority for our faith and our practice. “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is what life is all about,” (Eccl. 12:13). In the Book of Malachi the Israelites had returned from captivity in Babylon. They had completed building a temple for worship; now they were committing all kinds of sins against God, one sin was not tithing. The reason for their captivity in the first place was their sin and disobedience to God and not following His Commandments. In Malachi 3:8, it says “You people are robbing me, your God. And, here you are asking, “’How are we robbing you?”’

“You are robbing me of the offerings and the ten percent that belongs to me. That is why your whole nation is under a curse.” In the Book of Jonah, 3:10, in our Sunday school study several weeks ago, we see that it pleases God when we respond obediently to His word. In Jonah 4:5-11, we can determine that God’s harsh judgement is reserved for those who persist in rebellion.

Over the years, I see my 2nd/3rd graders in Sunday school, squeezing a dollar & not wanting to put it in the Sunday School collection because they have other plans. I tell them what my father told me, but, I explain it to them. And, they become so willing to give. They even tell another hesitant child why they should surrender that dollar.

The bottom line is that God commands us to tithe. All of our possessions belong to God because it is made possible only by God and God commands that we give back to Him 10%. So, please take a yellow pledge card from back of the pew and pledge to give AND do give back to God what is God’s.